Paul McCartney Resurrected a Rejected Beatles Song for His Solo Career
The Beatles have many lost works that never saw the light of day. Some have emerged through hidden footage or rehearsal audios, while others were given to other artists, such as The Rolling Stones. One song that The Beatles rejected was later resurrected by Paul McCartney, who gave the song new life in his solo career.
The Beatles rejected ‘Teddy Boy,’ written by Paul McCartney
In 1968, The Beatles took a trip to India to partake in a Transcendental Meditation training course. The trip to India inspired The Beatles to write several songs, many of which would become hits. One song written by Paul McCartney was called “Teddy Boy.” The song is about a relationship between a widow and her son, damaged by her new lover.
The singer-songwriter wrote the song in India, then later finished it in Scotland and London. According to Paul McCartney, he first played the song for the Beatles at the recording sessions for the Get Back film in 1969. However, it was met with skepticism by the other band members and was later rejected as tensions between the band were already starting to build.
Paul McCartney later used ‘Teddy Boy’ in his solo career
While initially rejected by The Beatles, Paul McCartney put “Teddy Boy” on his first solo album McCartney. In an interview for the book Wingspan: Paul McCartney’s Band on the Run (shared via The Paul McCartney Project), the British artist said “Teddy Boy” was one of many songs he put on the album that were never used by The Beatles.
“Some of the songs on “McCartney” I had tried with the Beatles and they hadn’t worked out,” McCartney explained. “There was one called ‘Teddy Boy’ – the unsuccessful Beatles version is on Anthology. The Beatles were breaking up and nobody had any patience, whereas in the earlier days we might have said, ‘Why don’t we try it like this?’ So I thought, ‘Right, I’ll do it on my own album’.”
Another version of the track is included in the 1996 compilation album, The Anthology 3. This version is comprised of two different takes that were both unused by the band.
McCartney included a John Lennon insult on the final cut
Part of the reason why the song was never used by The Beatles was that John Lennon kept making jabs at it while recording it. In The Beatles Anthology, Paul McCartney said that Lennon often insulted the song by repeating “do-si-do.” The “Live and Let Die” singer decided to include this in the song as he found it to be good humor, even if it was an indicator of the friction between the band at the time.
“We’ve now put together a version, an edit of one of the takes of us trying it, which sounds interesting. You can hear on it that the band wasn’t very interested in it,” McCartney admitted. “I don’t know why. Maybe I hadn’t finished it enough or something. Maybe it was just tension coming in. The bit I’d like to keep actually was John sort of making fun of it. He starts towards the end of it, going, ‘Grab your partners, do-si-do,’ so we’ve kept that on. And while it was, in some way, indicative of friction, it was good-humored friction.”
